Friday Feature

Assata Olugbala Shakur (birth
name JoAnee Deborah Byron, married name Joanne Chesimard) was born on July 14,
1947. Shortly after her birth, her mother and father divorced. Consequently,
Shakur lived with her mother, her aunt, and her grandmother and grandfather
(Lula and Frank Hill), in Jamaica, New York. At the age of three, she moved
with her grandparents to the house where her grandpa was raised in Wilmington,
North Carolina. Shakur’s grandparents opened up a business on their beachfront
property. Her early childhood was spent working for her grandparents in the
restaurant and on the beach. Her grandfather instilled in her a love of
reading, and she spent a great deal of her time reading to satisfy her lively
imagination.

After returning to live with her
mother and stepfather in Queens, Shakur began her political education. She began
to confront issues of racism and discrimination she was experiencing (The
Washington Post). When she was in her early teens, her mother and stepfather
divorced. Soon afterward, Shakur ran away from home and began to search for
answers to her questions about the world in which she lived. At the age of
seventeen, she dropped out of high school and officially moved out of her
mother’s house. In the late 1960’s, Shakur became involved with the
controversial Black Panther party and her political problems began.

Between 1973 and 1977 Shakur was
indicted ten times and stood trial for two bank robberies, the kidnapping of a
drug dealer, attempted murder of several police officers, and the murder of a
New Jersey state trooper (The Washington Post). In 1973, on the New Jersey
Turnpike, Shakur and her two friends - Malik Zayad Shakur and Sundiata Acoli -
were stopped by state troopers because of a shattered headlight. When stopped,
the trooper had said they were “suspicious” because they had Vermont license
plates.

The troopers made the three exit
the car with their hands up. All of a sudden, shots were fired. Not much is
known about who did what -- but in the end, state trooper Werner Foerster and
Malik Shakur were killed. Shakur and Sundiata were charged with the death of
trooper Foerster. The subsequent trial contained many flaws, including racial
injustice by the jury and admitted perjury by the trial’s star witness. With
the help of some of her “comrades,” Shakur escaped from prison in 1979. In
1987, she published her first book, simply titled Assata Shakur: An
Autobiography. Shakur had been missing for eight years until she published the
book, at which time she established her whereabouts in Cuba, where she was
granted political asylum.

The U.S government, under the
lead of New Jersey governor Whitman, is actively trying to extradite Shakur on
charges of killing state trooper Foerster. In the book, she tells her side of
the story, describing her upbringing, her reasons for becoming a revolutionary,
and the events before, during and after the shooting of trooper Foerster. The
book is also complemented by many poems written by Shakur. For Shakur, “she who
struggles,” the struggle is not over.

Though in Cuba, she is still an
active voice in the struggle for equal rights in America.